UCL-led SOFAIR, described as a £30 million national AI research lab, officially opens

University College London reported on September 11, 2026, that the Science of Fundamental AI Research (SOFAIR) Lab had officially opened. UCL describes it as a £30 million national lab, which it leads with the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh as partners, dedicated to developing open-source artificial intelligence systems.

SOFAIR is one of two labs created under a scheme of up to £60 million funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. The lab's lead put the investment at £30 million over the next six years. The lab brings together researchers from computer science, mathematics, statistics and neuroscience to explore new AI architectures, including ones designed to run on widely available hardware. Its counterpart, the British Open-ended Learning and Discovery (BOLD) Lab, is led by the University of Oxford with involvement from UCL and Imperial College London.

UKRI announced the two labs on June 23, 2026, describing them as the first major investment under its AI strategy. Each lab initially receives about £8 million, with the remaining funding to be confirmed after an assessment in autumn 2026. Both labs are expected to build partnerships across academia, industry and the public sector and to support entrepreneurship and spinouts based on their research.